Reasoning Across the Disciplines

Reasoning Across the Disciplines

Reasoning Across the Disciplines

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

About this course: Critical reasoning skills are a key success factor for students entering their first year of college. They must be able to think logically and form arguments. This course, designed with incoming college freshmen in mind but open to anyone, provides an essential grounding in critical reasoning skills. Faculty from multiple disciplines at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offer guidance on applying critical thinking skills in the context of specific disciplines. By developing these skills, students will learn more, enjoy their courses more, and experience greater academic success.
This course will help you understand what critical thinking skills are and why they're so important. You will also learn how critical thinking skills vary across disciplines, as well as see them applied across several fields, including, chemistry, history, psychology, law, English, and American Studies. You will develop your own critical thinking skills by working through scenarios or problems posed by scholars across these fields, and you will better understand how your college courses will differ from your earlier education.

Who is this class for: This course is primarily intended for incoming college freshmen, but anyone who wants to learn more about critical thinking in different disciplines will benefit from it.

This module provides an overview of the course. The first video explains the history of this course: While it was originally going to be geared toward incoming UNC students, we realized these skills are valuable to everyone, which is why we are offering it as a MOOC. The second video provides an overview of how the course is structured and why it was created.

2 videos

Video: Rationale for the Course

Video: Introduction to Reasoning Across the Disciplines

Think Like a Chemist

In this module, you'll learn about critical thinking and chemistry from Thomas Freeman.

2 videos, 1 reading, 2 practice quizzes

Video: The World at the Atomic Level

Practice Quiz: The World at the Atomic Level

Video: How Energy Powers our Universe

Practice Quiz: How Energy Powers our Universe

Reading: About the Contributor: Thomas Freeman

Graded: Think Like a Chemist Essay

WEEK 2

Think Like an Historian

In this module, you'll learn about critical thinking and history from Kathleen DuVal.

3 videos, 2 readings, 1 practice quiz

Video: Turning the World Upside Down

Reading: A Letter from Christopher Columbus

Video: Understanding Columbus’s Impressions of the Tainos

Video: Understanding the Tainos’ Impressions of Columbus

Practice Quiz: Columbus and World History

Reading: About the Contributor: Kathleen DuVal

Graded: Think Like a Historian Essay

WEEK 3

Think Like a Psychologist

In this module, you'll learn about critical thinking and psychology from Kurt Gray.

3 videos, 1 reading, 2 practice quizzes

Video: Understanding How Others Think

Video: Thinking and Feeling

Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Thinking and Feeling

Video: Mind Perception and Moral Judgment

Practice Quiz: Practice Quiz: Mind Perception and Moral Judgment

Reading: About the Contributor: Kurt Gray

Graded: Think Like a Psychologist Essay

WEEK 4

Think Like a Law Professor

In this module, you'll learn about critical thinking and the law from Donald Hornstein.

3 videos, 3 readings, 2 practice quizzes

Video: Considering Free Will

Reading: Court Cases: Hackbart and O'Brien

Video: Understanding the Civil Law of Battery

Practice Quiz: Understanding the Civil Law of Battery

Reading: Court Cases: Mugler and Lucas

Video: Liberty versus Property

Practice Quiz: Liberty versus Property

Reading: About the Contributor: Donald Hornstein

Graded: Think Like a Law Professor Essay

WEEK 5

Think Like a Literature Professor

In this module, you'll learn about critical thinking and literature from Heidi Kim.

3 videos, 3 readings, 2 practice quizzes

Video: Context through Reading

Reading: Close Reading Example

Video: Close Reading

Practice Quiz: Close Reading Practice Quiz

Video: The Art of Interpretation

Practice Quiz: The Art of Interpretation Practice Quiz

Reading: Additional Resources (Optional)

Reading: About the Contributor: Heidi Kim

Graded: Think Like a Literature Professor Essay

WEEK 6

Think Like an American Studies Scholar

In this module, you'll learn about critical thinking and American Studies from Sharon P. Holland. Warning: The video "Dogs & Fighting, Horses & Racing, and Race" contains graphic descriptions of dog fighting and may not be suitable for all audiences.

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

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Creators

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nation’s first public university, is known around the world for innovative teaching and research. Regularly ranked as the nation’s best value for academic quality, UNC has produced the most Rhodes Scholars for the past 25 years among U.S. public research universities.

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Ratings and Reviews

Rated 4.2 out of 5 of 11 ratings

What you will find here is good, really. But only very few thing are mentioned. Scope is not that wide.